Co-pro Commissioning Champions in Wales

[Ruth Dineen]

Last year Co-pro Wales linked up with Julia Slay to run two three-day Co-pro Commissioning Masterclasses in north and south Wales. The attendees were a dynamic and varied crowd - from Welsh Government, local authorities, health boards, statutory and third-sector organisations. They are now putting what they have learned in to practice. Here, in no particular order, are some of the highlights:

Children’s Commissioning Consortium Cymru (4Cs)

• Adopting co-production principles in our regional needs and market analysis which will feed into our regional commissioning and forward procurement strategy
• Trained young commissioners across the region to be involved in commissioning and co-production. Young commissioners have gone on to train other young people, train providers, have made a video and presented to council members. 

Wrexham CC

• Developing Third Sector Strategy and Commissioning Strategies to take account of co-production principles, and amending our Grant Application Form to focus on outcomes.
• Creating a toolkit for our co-produced CYP Commissioning Strategy implementation.
• Developing an Outcomes Framework for our county-wide Anti-Poverty strategy.
• Developing a Timebank for Wrexham to enable more service users and community members to get involved in projects of community benefit.

Wales Government, Department of Health & Social Services

• Working on code of practice and regulations for SS&WB Act and working to build a co-production approach through the whole with colleagues
• Looking at commissioning and procurement with Social Firms Wales/Value Wales/ EST/ Wales Co-operatives and hoping to run workshops in commissioning for co-production and outcomes.

Ynys Mon CC

• Planning how to enthuse families to start the Co-production Journey  and taking the next steps towards co-producing new support services for children and young people with disabilities.  

RCT Interlink

• Instigated Isolation to Integration project, training Community Ethnographers and creating an Asset Map to change commissioning conversation around older peoples services.
• Co-producing educational outcomes - starting in Tonypandy School and linking with a Rhondda-wide initiative.

Conwy CC

• Applying for funding to set up Together We’re Able – a user-led organisation to establish a ‘community’ of those who have a commitment to enabling children with disabilities in Conwy to achieve their potential – using a co-production model.

Flintshire CC

• Co-producing a new model of service provision for adults with disabilities and sensory impairment, working with current users of services, providers and community groups. It aims to replace traditional grant funded arrangements offering ‘Information, advice and support services’ and some specialist assessment services for Independent living equipment.
• Undertaking a community asset mapping exercise to record any added social value of universal services or voluntary groups available to support people with disabilities in each of Flintshire’s three locality areas

Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Organisations (CAVO)

• Caring Communities – Planned coproduced approach to enabling communities to increase their robustness.

Denbighshire CC

• Developing a service for looked after children who are leaving care that promotes independent living skills, resilience and social inclusion. Starting the shift to an Outcomes focus.

Dimensions Cymru

• Set up our ‘Time For’ Time-bank in association with Spice. People we support are now getting far more involved in voluntary work and community connecting to earn time credits.
• Our Personalisation Project Group is going from strength to strength. This includes people we support - families, social workers, day service staff etc. - in reviewing and planning individualised services within a block contract structure.

Gwynedd CC

• Co-producing the Older People Strategy / Ageing Well Strategy for Gwynedd, to include a wellbeing-focused Outcomes Framework, and citizen-led consultation to identify ‘what matters’ locally.
• Strengthened regional collaboration by re-vamping the North Wales Ageing Well Network terms to ensure multi stakeholder approach.
• Reviewing current Third Sector SLAs – working with providers and service users to develop a range of outcomes to measure impact of services provided.

Big Lottery

• In Good Hands - more co-design than co-production, but a new way of working for us bringing together research work alongside an advisory group and beneficiary involvement to determine the best approach to supporting looked after children and their carers to improve the life chances of looked after children.

Cardiff CC

• Co-production Presentation delivered to Senior Management Team (with assistance from other delegates) and agreement given to pilot co-production in Assessment and Care Management, Parks, and Youth Services.
• Exploring if and how co-production can form part of the Council’s Workforce Development Programme.

Torfaen CC

• Working with Monmouthshire social care management team to undertake self assessment in readiness for the duties in the Social Care & Wellbeing Act.
• Planned work with housing colleagues in Community Housing Cymru, WLGA and Gwent for a draft MoU on working together with the NHS.

North Wales Social Services Improvement Collaborative (NWSSIC)

• North Wales Domiciliary Care Project - learning from others to develop our approach to commissioning for outcomes i.e. commissioning providers to work with people differently. This will be supported by capacity building workshops for providers, elected members, procurement leads and senior LA managers.
• ‘What matters to you’ conversations - working with Health Board, LA colleagues and citizens to review the language of the clinical ‘frailty’ model and identify skills needed by health & social care staff for effective conversations about ‘what matters’ to people.
• A North Wales Direct Payment Project Group has been exploring organisational and cultural changes required to increase citizen voice and control in achieving wellbeing outcomes – in preparation for the SS&W Act implementation. Schemes and support provision have been compared across North Wales and case studies of notable practice shared.

Cartrefi Cymru

• Floating Support Service focuses on identifying what the service user actually wants and needs, with a strong emphasis on articulating this in their own words, rather than following professional prescriptions and pathways.
• Multi-stakeholder co-operative bringing together people with learning disabilities, families and support staff in an area. Aiming to raise confidence and expectations and their collective capacity to make their lives better.
• We’ve made an organisational promise to respect service users’ rights and responsibilities as tenants, citizens and ‘co-workers’, and to enable them to enjoy these actively rather than passively.

South East Wales Improvement Collaborative (SEWIC)

• Commissioning Care Assurance & Performance System (CCAPS).  A joint project between Health & Social Care working with stakeholders from finance, procurement, commissioning, frontline practitioners, government and user groups to develop a programme of commissioning activity to ensure better value for money and a national approach - where appropriate and possible - to quality assurance/performance.

Swansea Council

• Created Co-pro Implementation Group of citizens, staff and managers, working together to identify and take forward issues and ideas across the Council to achieve everyday improvements and practical solutions. 
• Toronto Place Community Centre – remodelled as a member led service rather than social service day support

Carmarthenshire CC

• Trained a pool of young commissioners to assist in all aspects of commissioning. Two have already been full members of the procurement panel for our Family First commissioning exercise.
• Co-production was incorporated into our service specifications for the Family First procurement process.
• Working with Mencap to further develop our parent’s participation processes.

Welsh Government, Care & Social Services Inspectorate

• Developing a full understanding of the duties to co-produce in the Social Services & Wellbeing Act, and an Evaluation of Council Performance in Co-production.

 
Impressive eh!